Children's content review

Ofcom’s review of children’s content focuses on how the UK’s public service broadcasters (PSBs) deliver a range of programmes to children at a time of changing audience habits and children’s increasing viewing of videos on-demand and online.

The review set out to assess how we might use the new power provided in the Digital Economy Act 2017 (DEA), which gave Ofcom a power to publish criteria for the provision of children’s programming and, if appropriate, to set related conditions (e.g. quotas) on the licensed public service channels (Channel 3 services, Channel 4 and Channel 5).

Our Invitation to Contribute summarised our evidence on children’s evolving media use, the availability of children’s programming, and industry trends. We asked for input on several questions on these themes. A range of broadcasters, producers and other industry stakeholders responded.

We have now reviewed these contributions, alongside our research on children’s attitudes and use of media, and data on PSBs’ investment in children’s programmes. Here we provide an update on the review, summarising our main findings, conclusions and next steps.